Machine for making cigar wrappers



Sept. 11, 1934. H. RADZINSKY 1,972,952

MACHINE FOR MAKING CIGAR WRAiPERS Filed Dec. 7, 1953 Patented Sept. 11, 1934 PATENT OFFICE UNITED 'STATES 17 Claims-,

This invention relates to a machine for making cigar wrappers.

The object of the invention is to produoe a simple and eiiective machine for making cigar wrappers of the type shown and described in my Patent No. 1,893,523, dated January th, 1933. In the patent is shown a cigar wrapper consisting ofa sheet of transparent cellulose material of the kind commercially referred to as Cello- 10 phane and by other names, which has a printed cigar band attached to one of its faces by spaced spots of adhesive applied between the printed face of the cigar band and the face of the sheet. The finished cigar wrapper, as fed to a cigar wrapping machine for application to a cigar, consists therefore of a sheet of Cella chine may be fed to and applied by the wrapping.

machine to the cigars.

More specifically, my invention contemplates a machine in which a band stack or holder contains a plurality of cigar bands with their printed faces disposed uppermost in the stack, and a single, movable pneumatic picker withdraws suc cessive bands from the bottom of the stack and holds the bands with their printed faces uppermost while they receive glue spots on their printed surfaces, and then moves to one side of the band stack, and with a swinging movement ap-- plies the glue-bearing face of the band against the face of a Cellophane sheet, leaving the band so applied, on the sheet.

The invention also contemplates cutting means for severing sections of the sheet into wrappers, from a roll of Cellophane as each band is applied, said cutting mechanism being operated by the movement of the picker to band-applying position.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 is a sectional view through the machine, taken on the line 11 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows; Fig. 2 is a. plan view of the machine; Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows; Fig. 4

is a sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows; and Fig. 5 is asectional view through the support for the Cellophane sheet material.

The main elements of the machine are supported on a table or plate 10 which may rest upon uprights or standards not shown, or be supported in any other suitable way. Extending vertically from the upper face of the table 10 is a bracket or pedestal 11, which is secured to the table by screws 12 and supports the band stack holder. The band stack holder is provided with a pair of end guides 14 and 15, between which the pile or stack of bands 13 is held. The guide 14 may, if desired, be an integral upward continuation of the bracket 11. A brace member 16 connects the guides 14 and 15. The guides 14 and 15 are channel-shaped in cross section, and extending across the lower ends of these guides and connecting the longitudinal flanges thereof, are the rods 17 upon which the stack of bands 13 is supported, adjacent the ends or extremities of the bands. The band stack holder supports the bands with their printed faces disposed uppermost and is open at the bottom so that a picker member 20 may contact with and successively remove the lowermost band in the stack. The bands in the stack are forced toward the bottom of the holder by either a weight or spring means, not shown, as such an arrangement is used in cigar-banding machines.

The picker member 20, which successively removes bands from the bottom of the stack, has a head 21 somewhat smaller than the bands in the stack, but conforming generally in outline to correspond to the shape of the conventional type of cigar band. The head 21 of the picker is secured on the end of a tube 22 which is provided with a nipple 23 to which a flexible tube 24 is attached. The tube 24 is connected to suitable suction-creating means, such as a pump or the like.

The nipple 23 and connected tube 22 form a suction passage 25 which connects with the passages 26 in the picker head 21,.the passages 26 opening in the face of the picker head. when the picker head has its face brought into contact with the lowermost band in the stack, and suction is exerted through the tube 24, nipple 23 and connecting passages 25 and 26, the band will adhere to the face of the picker, and when the picker is swung downwardly, the band will be drawn out of the stack holder and held by the picker below the stack, in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1.

The tube 22, forming a part of the picker, is

provided at its inner end, with a sleeve 30 which is mounted to slide longitudinally on a shaft 31 which is mounted torock in bearings 32 and 33, secured on and extending vertically from the table 10. The sleeve is internally splined as indicated at 34, the splines being located in grooves 35 (Fig. 2) formed in the shaft 31.

Through this arrangement, the picker is swung when the shaft is rocked, yet the picker is slidable longitudinally of the shaft for purposes which will appear hereinafter. On one of its ends, the shaft 31 is provided with a gear 36 which meshes with a segmental gear 3'7, pivoted at 38 in a bracket 39 extending upwardly from the table 10. The segmental gear 37 is provided with a downwardly extending arm 40 having its lower end pivotally connected to a link 41 which extends to suitable cam mechanism for rocking the shaft in a manner hereinafter described. The picker is slid back andforth on the shaft 31 by means of a yoke 42 which embraces the sleeve 30 of the picker and is slidable on the shaft. The

yoke 42 is provided with a projecting pin 43 which is straddled by the slotted end 44 of a lever 45, which extends downwardly through an opening 46 in the table 10 and is pivoted at 47 in brackets 48. The lever isrocked in synchronism with the other mechanism by suitable cam means.

When aband has been drawn downwardly from 30;: the bottom of the stack 13, it is held below the stack in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, at which time spaced spots of glue are applied to the printed face of the band. To enable this operation to be performed, the bands 13 in the 35. stack are held in thestack holder with their printed faces disposed uppermost, so that when a band is drawn from the bottom of the stack and the picker pauses in its descent at a slight distance below the stack with a handheld on its 40 j face, said band is held with its printed face uppermost and exposed so that the spots of glue indicated at 50 in Fig. 2,. are applied to the printed face of the band adjacent its opposite ends. The gumming mechanism for applying these spots of 45.; glue is shown at the left of Fig. 2. Said gumming mechanism is provided with a tank or glue receptacle 51 which. contains the liquid glue or ad- .hesive 52. A shaft 53 is mounted between the walls of the tank and is adapted to be rocked at 50'; the proper time to bring the upwardly bent extremities 54 of fingers 55 into contact with the printed face of the band while it is held on the picker, substantially as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The fingers 55 are secured on and project 55,: from the rock shaft 53 and the extremities 54 of these fingers are normally submerged in the liquid adhesive 52 in the tank 51. The end of the shaft 53 is provided. with a gear 56 which meshes with a segmental gear 5'1 pivotally mount- 0 3 ed at 59, in a bracket 58 secured to the under face of thetable 10. An arm 60 extends from the segmental gear 57 and the arm 60 is connected to a link or operating rod 61, which extends to suitable cam mechanism. I

f Whentheoperating rod 61 is moved, the segmental gear 57 will rotate the gear 56 to cause the fingers 55 to be swung upward and out of the tank 51. The tips orextremities 54 of the fingers 55 will be brought into contact with the printed face of the band held on the picker and will place two spots or dots'of glue on the face of.

' 55 back into the tank, .whilethe picker is then moved to one side of the band stack to the position indicated in dotted lines at the upper portion of Fig. 2. When the picker reaches this position, it is then swung in a clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 1, to bring the printed, glue carrying surface of the band carried by it down upon the upper face of a section of transparent sheet material, such as Cellophane, then resting upon a support 65. The Cellophane or other similar sheet material is intermittently fed to the support from a roll 66 by any suitable intermittent sheet feeding means. For this purpose I have shown one of a pair of intermittent rotated rollers, the upper roller 6'? of which is shown in Fig. 2. The sheet is fed between this top roller 6'! and a lower companion roller in the conventional way, and when the rollers are intermittently rotated, they will feed a section of the sheet material of predetermined size, over a supporting plate 68 to cause it to then reach the hollow support 65 where it rests during the application of the band, as heretofore described.

On its way to the support 65 on which the band is applied, the sheet is fed under a cutting knife 69, pivoted at 70 in a bracket '71 extending upwardly from the support 68. The knife 69 is normally held in a raised position, as shown in Fig. 1, by means of a spring 72 which has its lower end resting in a lug 73 and its upper end bearing against the seat 74a provided on the end of the knife 69. I

When a section of sheet material fed from the roll 66 reaches the support 65, it is preferably held thereon in a smooth and flattened condition by means of suction exerted through the openings 74 provided in the top plate of the support 65, these openings communicating with the hollow interior of the support 65. The hollow interior of the support communicates with a suction tube 75 connected to a suction pump or other suitable suction-creating means. When suction is exerted, the sheet lying on top of the support 65 is held perfectly flat and smooth thereon and is prevented from shifting while the picker brings the band carried by it down on the face of the sheet at the proper position thereon with the gummed face of the band pressed into contact with the upper face of the sheet. when the picker head 21 presses the hand against the face of the Cellophane sheet, suction to the picker head is. stopped so that the band is released and the picker is swimg backward to its former position, to the left of the shaft 31 as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2, leaving the band adhering to the face of the sheet. If desired, the suction to the picked head may be reversed when the band is brought into contact with the face of the Cellophane sheet by the picker head, so that a blast of air blown through the picker head will press the band firmly on to the sheet. As the picker is swimg to band-applying position, as shown in full lines in Fig. 2, a laterally extending arm 77 projecting from the tube 22 is brought down upon the top edge of the knife 69, causing the knife to be pressed downwardly so that it, in co-operation with the surface 78 provided onthe support 65, will cut oil! the section of the "Cellophane" sheet material resting on the support 65 and to which the band has been applied. The completed wrapper, consisting of the severed section of Cellophane" sheet material to which a band has been adhesively applied, is now ready for removal to the wrapping mechanism. This may be. done by any suitable conveyor means and for this purpose, I have shown grippers which engage the 150 wrapper at one of its longitudinal edges and draw it from off the support 65 and carry it away to wrapping means. These grippers consist primarily of a lower fixed member 79 to which an upper movable gripper member 80 is hinged at 81. A spring 82 normally holds the movable gripper member 80 closed, or in contact with the fixed member '79. As the gripper mechanism is moved toward the support 65 to engage a completed wrapper resting thereon, angularly projecting ends 83 formed on the movable gripper member 80 ride on the off-set ends 84 of dogs 85 pivoted to the sides of the support 65, which causes the movable gripper member 80 to be raised so that the edge of the sheet resting upon the support will enter between the two gripper members 79 and 80. To facilitate this, the support 65 is recessed at 86 so that the projecting fingers 87 forming part of the gripper members '79 and 80 may enter into these recesses to engage the edge of the sheet.

When the ends 83 on the movable gripper member ride past the off-set ends 84 of the pivoted dogs 85, the gripper members 80 and '79 are brought together by the pressure of the spring 82 and they grip the edge of the sheet between them. The gripper device, carrying the sheet, is then moved away in a direction toward the upper part of Fig. 2, as indicated by the arrow 99, carrying the completed wrapper with it.

Briefly, the operation of the machine is as follows:

A stack of bands 13 is placed in the holder with their printed faces disposed uppermost, the bands in the holder being normally forced toward the bottom of the same by any suitable means, such as by a weight or by spring pressure. By rotation of the shaft 31 in a clockwise direction when viewed in Fig. l, the picker is swung upwardly to bring the face of the head 21 into contact with the lowermost band in the stack. Suction then exerted through the picker causes the lowermost hand in the stack to adhere to the face of the picker. By slight rotation of the shaft 31 in an anti-clockwise direction, the picker is caused to descend to a position below the band stack, carrying the lowermost band from the stack holder with it and holding it with its printed face uppermost. The gumming fingers 55 are then swung out of the tank 51 to bring their tips or extremities 54; against the printed face of the band while the band is held by the picker. When this gumming operation has been completed, the fingers 55 are swung back into the tank, and the picker is then slid along the shaft 31, in the direction of the arrow 95 in Fig. 2 until the picker and tie band carried by it are located in the position shown in dotted lines at the upper portion of Fig. 2. While the picker has been carrying a band away from the stack and moving to the position described, the intermittent sheet-feeding rollers, or other intermittent feeding mechanism, have fed a section of Cellophane sheet material from the roll 66 to position over the support 65 on which it is held smooth and fiat by suction. The picker is then swung, by a clockwise movement of the shaft 31, to bring the band carried by the picker into contact with the upper face of that portion of the Cellophane" sheet material which is situated upon the support 65. The pressure of the picker head 21 may be used to press the band firmly upon the Cellophane sheet material or as heretofore explained, a blast of air exerted through the picker by the reversal of the suction pump may act to press the band firmly against the sheet.

As the picker moves to band-applying position, its projecting arm 77 presses downwardly upon the top edge of the knife 69 causing the knife to be forced downwardly to cut off that portion of the sheet material resting on the support 65,

from the rest of the sheet material leading from the roll. After the picker has thus applied a band to the sheet and has caused the knife to function, it is then swung in an anti-clockwise direction back to its former position to the left of shaft 31, and is then slid along the shaft 31 to position below the band stack and ready for the next upward movement to bring it into contact with the'next band in the stack. The grippers 79 and 80 next come into position to engage the edge of the completed wrapper and, as suction through the support 65 has ceased, the completed wrapper is carried away by the grippers and brought to wrapping mechanism. A new section of sheet material is then fed to the support 65 in preparation to receive the next band brought to it by the picker.

By reason of the fact that the bands are withdrawn from the stack holder and applied to the Cellophane sheets by a single movable element, that is, the picker, the device is very speedy in operation and can easily, in the production of these wrappers, keep pace with the fastestoperating cigar wrapping machine in use at the present time.

What I claim is:

1. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder in which a plurality of bands are supported with their printed faces uppermost,

a band picker, means for moving the picker to cause it to withdraw successive bands from the bottom of the stack holder, and-means for applying spaced spots of glue on the printed face of each band after said band has been withdrawn from the holder and while said band is held with its printed face uppermost on the picker.

2. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder in which a plurality of bands are supported with their printed faces uppermost, a picker movable below the stack holder, means for moving the picker to cause it to. withdraw successive bands from the bottom. of the stack in the holder and hold each band with its printed face uppermost, means for applying spots of glue on the printed face of the band after said band has been withdrawn from the stack holder and while said band is held on the picker, means for supporting a section of sheet material, and means for moving the picker to cause it to bring the printed glue-carrying face of the band into contact with the sheet to cause said band to be adhesively attached to the sheet.

3. In a machine of the character described, a. band stack holder for holding a plurality of bands with their printed faces uppermost, a picker for removing successive bands from the bottom of the stackholder and holding each band so removed with its printed face uppermost, glueapplying means for applying spaced spots of glue to each band while it is supported on the picker,

a support for a roll of sheet material, a support over which sheet material is fed from the roll, means for moving the picker to cause it to bring a band removed by it from the stack holder into contact with a section of the sheet material held on the support, and means for severing a section of said sheet material from the roll while a band is being glued to that section.

4. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder, a swinging pneumatic band the band carried by it against the portion of picker for withdrawing bands from the bottom of the stack holder and pausing with each band held below the stack holder, glue-applying means for placing spaced glue-spots on each band during the pause in the movement of the picker below the stack holder, means for shifting the picker with a glue-carrying band to one side of the band stack holder, a support for a sheet of material, and means for swinging the picker to cause it to apply the glued face of the band carried by it directly against a sheet located on the support.

5. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder for holding bands with their printed surfaces uppermost, a swinging pneumatic band picker for withdrawing bands from the bottom of the holder and pausing with each band held with its printed face disposed uppermost below the holder, a glue-applying means for placing spaced glue-spots on the printed face of each band during the pause in the movement of the picker below the holder, means for shifting the picker with a glue-carrying band to one side of the band holder, a support for a sheet of material, sheet-severing means, means for swinging the picker tocause it to apply the glued face of the band carried by it directly against a sheet located on the support, and means on the picker for causing the sheet-severing means to cut off the portion of the sheet to which the band has been applied. L I

6. In a machine of the character described, means for supporting a band stack, means for supporting a roll of sheet material, a sheet support to which material from the roll is fed, a single swinging band picker for taking successive bands from the stack and pasting them onto sheet material located on the support, and sheet-severing means operated by the picker to cut off the portions of the sheet to which thebands are applied.

7. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder for holding bands with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a swinging pneumatic band picker movable below the stack holder to remove successive bands from the bottom of the stack holder and hold them with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a swinging glue-applying device having glue-carrying members adapted to be brought into contact with the printed face of each band while said band is held on the picker, means for sliding the picker and a band carried by it to one side of the band stack holder, means for holding a roll of transparent sheet material, means for intermittently feeding sheet material therefrom, a support on which sheet material fed from the roll is brought to rest, means for swinging the picker to cause it to directly bring the glue-bearing surface of the sheet material located on the support, and means for cutting that portion of the sheet material from the roll.

8. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder for holding bands with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a swinging pneumatic picker movable below the stack holder 'to remove successive bands from the bottom of the stack holder and hold them with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a swinging glue-applying device having glue-carrying members adapted to be brought into contact with the printed face of each band while said band is held by the picker in a position below the band stack holder, means for sliding the picker and the band carried by it to one side. of the band stack holder, means for supporting a roll of transparent sheet material, means for intermittently feeding sheet material from the roll, a support on which the sheet material fed from the roll is brought to rest, means for cutting sections from the sheet material, and means for swinging the picker to cause it to directly bring ,the glue-bearing surface of the band carried by it against the portion of the sheet material located on the support, said picker having means for causing the cutting means to function as the picker is swung 'to band-applying position.

9. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder for holding bands with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a swinging pneumatic picker movable below the stack holder to remove successive bands from the bottom of the stack holder and hold them with their printed faces disposed uppermost, a glue container, a swinging glue-applying device having glue-carrying members adapted to be swung out of the container and brought into contact with the printed face of each band adjacent the oppositeextremities thereof while said band is held by the picker in a lowered position below the band stack holder,

means for sliding the picker and the band carried by it while the picker is in a lowered position, to one side of the band stack holder, means for supporting a roll of transparent sheet material, means for intermittently feeding sheet material from the roll, a support on which the sheet material fed from the roll is brought to rest, means for holding the sheet material on the support, means for cutting sections from the sheet 'feeding material from said roll and over the support, sheet-cutting means, a single movable element for taking bands successively from the stack holder and adhesively applying them to sheet material held on the support, and means carried by said elementfor operating the sheet-cutting means.

11. In a machine of the character described, means for supporting a roll of transparent sheet material, a support to which sheet material drawn from the roll is moved, a movable member for carrying a band having an adhesive applied to its surface, cutting means for severing from the roll the section of the sheet material resting on the support, and means on the movable bandcarrying member for operating the cutting means. 12. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder, a pivoted pneumatic picker for removing successive bands from the bottom of the stack and descending to a position below the stack holder, glue-applying means for placing an ad,

hesive on the face of each band while it is held on the picker below the stack holder, means for bodily shifting the picker and band carried by it to a position from below the stack and means for swinging the picker to cause it to bring the adhesive face of the band carried by it into contact with a section of sheet material.

13. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder in which a plurality of bands are held with their printed faces uppermost,

means for supporting sheet material, gumming means for applying an adhesive to the printed faces of the bands as said bands are withdrawn from the band stack holder, and means for taking successive bands from the stack holder, holding each band while the adhesive is being applied to it by the gumming means and then adhesively applying the band to the top face of the sheet material held on the support, said last mentioned means comprising a swinging member rotated in one direction to withdraw bands from the stack holder and rotated in an opposite direction to apply bands to the sheet material.

14. In a machine of the character described, a'band stack holder, a support for receiving sheet material, means for feeding sheet material to said support, a shaft located between the support and the band stack holder, a picker mounted to rotate with the shaft and slide thereon, means for rocking the shaft in one direction to cause the picker to withdraw a band from the stack holder and for rocking the shaft in an opposite direction to cause the band carried by the picker to be applied to sheet material located on the support, and means for sliding the picker on the shaft to move it to one side of the band stack holder before it is swung to band-applying position.

15. In a machine of the characterdescribed, a support on which a section of sheet material is brought to rest, a band stack holder, a member for withdrawing a band from the stack holder and holding the band with its printed face uppermost, means for applying glue to the printed face of the band while the band is held on the member with its printed face uppermost, and

means for actuating the member to cause it to turn the band over to direct its glued printed face downwardly and into contact with the upper face of the sheet material positioned on the support.

16. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder in which a plurality of bands are supported with their printed faces uppermost, a band picker pivotally mounted below the stack holder, means for swinging the picker to cause it to withdraw successive bands from the bottom of the stack in the holder, means for supporting a roll of sheet material, a support at one side of the pivotal point of the picker 'on which said sheet material is fed, means for swinging the picker to cause it to move the band carried by it to a position with its printed face against one face of the sheet material, and means for severing the section of sheet material to which the band has been applied, from the roll-simultaneously with the application of the band to said section.

1'7. In a machine of the character described, a band stack holder, means for supporting a roll of sheet material, a sheet support at one side of the band stack holder to which material from the roll is fed, a single movable picker for taking successive bands from the bottom of the stack and carrying them to a position where they rest against one face of the sheet material and where they are adhesively attached to said sheet material, and sheet severing means operating simultaneously with the application of the bands to cut off the portions of the sheet to which the bands are applied.

HARRY RADZINSKY. 

